


Five Things (x7)

by trascendenza



Category: Brimstone
Genre: Gen, five things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-25
Updated: 2007-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 18:18:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trascendenza/pseuds/trascendenza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Various five things prompts. Mostly gen, some implied Zeke/Devil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Things (x7)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by tinheart and dreams_power.

**Five Things Lucifer Regrets** (2007-04-25)

5\. His forsaken name. No immortal will speak it to him and he can't hear it from the lips of mortals; it may be that he has forgotten it by now, too.

4\. Ezekiel's complete lack of imagination. He couldn't see the fun in it all. After all, what did they think he'd really left heaven for—Hell?

3\. That he had to let his wayward minions think he'd been lax with them; but when they were all returned, they would know. Nobody beat him.

2\. The ambient temperature of the Earth. A bit chilly for his taste, really.

1\. _His_ face: he saw it everywhere. In his own, in Ezekiel's, in every man's and woman's. Everywhere except where he wanted to see it: in front of him in forgiveness.

**Five Names the Devil is Known By** (2007-05-02)

5\. شيطان (shaitan). He had Aaron Belfast, an account with a penchant for eating human liver, draw up the figures and settled that once and for all, Satan is his most popular moniker to date.

4\. The Old Serpent. An oldie, but goodie, he'll tell you. And a highly favored form.

3\. Prince of Lies. He's privately revised this to the King of Lies.

2\. Accuser of Job. He's not very fond of this one; being identified in relation to someone else isn't what he'd call a distinction.

1\. Morningstar, light bearer, _heosphoros_. In some earlier tongues, he was simply known as the sun.

And even when his eyes are corporeal, he closes them, and remembers the weight of light on his shoulders, and the press of the abyss into his back.

**Five Rules Even Lucifer is Hesitant to Break** (2007-05-02)

5\. Once a soul has been released, it is out of his domain. A contract, even with the Devil, is a contract. But he'll plant seeds of doubt until the very last of the one-hundred thirteen is rounded up. No need to let the detective get complacent, after all. He still has a job to do.

4\. _And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him._ Though he is by nature contrary, he has yet to test whether he can go back; perhaps in another thousand millennia, or so. Funny, how much easier it is to fall than to ascend.

3\. Affecting the balance of good and evil on their middleground. In a corner of his mind darker than the rest, he contemplates giving up the eternal battle, and letting loose his hold on his domain, and sitting back to watch would happen. Hell on Earth has its own appeals.

But would He even care, or would it all be part of His plan?

2\. Commanding instead of tempting. He bends and stretches temptation to the farthest reaches of its conceptual boundaries, but has yet to cross the line; it is his solemn and sacred tenet as one who chafed under His commands. This is the closest he comes to a moral.

1\. Loving a mortal as only a mortal may love God.

**Five Times Zeke Didn't Regret Taking the Job** (2007-05-02)

5\. There she was, _real_. Not being killed in front of his eyes, or condemning him with vicious words. Living, breathing—scared—but real. His Ros.

4\. "Thanks, Stone," Max said, blowing with a huge honking noise into her tissue and dabbing at her red, puffy eyes. "Don't know what I woulda done without you."

3\. "All faith comes at a price," Father Horn said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "But, for it counts, son, you've given this old man a new reason to believe."

2\. "What just happened?" The woman asked, her eyes rolling with fear. She looked at the spot where Eduardo d'Enchenzo had been standing, the last wisps of Hellish blue light fading.

"You just got your second chance," Zeke said, handing her his coat and ushering her out of the alley.

1\. "Well," Lucifer said, taking one last look around the Earth, as if double checking. "I'll be."

**Five Times Lucifer Told the Truth** (2007-05-04)

5\. "I tempted him once when he was young. A deliciously confused youth, so unsure of his place in the world." The Devil grinned, fire curling in his eyes as he remembered. "He called out his father's name the whole time."

4\. "Ah, but you see, my dear detective, that is where I differ so greatly from Him: I love the sinner just as much as I love the sin."

3\. "Not that it's any of your devildamned business, but I was the first creature in all of creation to tell a lie. I earn my titles, and you will find out why I am called Beezlebub very soon if you don't get back to work."

2\. He frowned, and the air around him rippled, as if the potency of his displeasure was spreading outwards. "I hoped this day would never come," he said, a contract materializing in his hands. He tore it into pieces. "You're free, Ezekiel."

1.

Zeke found Lucifer at his gravestone.

"Is my body still in there?" Zeke asked, sitting down beside him.

"Rotting flesh is inhabiting the coffin, yes. But without your soul, even the miracles of modern science won't be able to identify it as anything other than that. Thank Him for that small favor."

Zeke shrugged. "If I owe anyone thanks, it's you, you old snake. Never thought you'd keep up your end."

Lucifer laughed a little too cheerfully. "Of _all_ the times to get sentimental. For shame." He shooed at Zeke with his hands, "On your way, Ezekiel. After a year of listening to your non-stop whining about resuming your life I certainly don't want to see you lingering at your grave."

He didn't budge. "Why are you still here?" Zeke asked, looking at Lucifer without wavering his gaze.

Lucifer sighed; it was the first time Zeke had ever seen him look anything other than condescending, enraged, or amused. Now he just looked... tired.

"Hope." Lucifer said, grimacing. "An infectious little bitch, isn't she?"

**Five Times Lucifer Almost Did Something Nice and Ezekiel Noticed** (2007-05-05)

**5.**

"Watch the—"

The hellcar bumped.

Zeke looked back: he'd just plastered a snake across the road. Fifteen miles an hour, while totally inefficient for traveling, was still apparently sufficient for roadkill.

Lucifer frowned.

**4.**

"Here you are, my dear," Lucifer said, holding up a heaping spoonful of Rocky Road ice cream for Max. "We'll get a little meat on your bones, yet."

When Zeke asked him about it later, he looked perfectly sinful and said, "saturated fat and cholesterol. That ice cream will be lingering in her veins for many years to come."

"Oh, of course. And her happiness was just a fluke by-product, right?"

"You're—albeit it at a snail's pathetic pace—finally catching on, detective."

**3.**

"I'm not letting her interfere with my job. I'm all too aware of the fact that Ros has moved on."

"Oh, for sinning's sake, she hasn't—" Lucifer curled his lip up in distaste. "You'll find out soon enough," he muttered under his breath, and vanished with an annoyed wave of his hand.

**2.**

"Did you have anything to tell me or were you just planning on irritating me all morning?"

Lucifer finished screwing the cap back on the salt shaker (now full of sugar, and vice versa), and placed it down on the table next to them.

"What was that? Whining again, were we? And here I thought being back on Earth would bring the spring back into your step, get that little bee out of your bonnet."

A couple was seated next to them and the waitress told them she'd be back with their usual in a minute.

"I'm just getting a little fed up with all the games. Can't you tell me where to find them? You're the one who wants them back so badly."

The waitress gave them two steaming plates of hashbrowns and eggs, and the man immediately began sprinkling what should have been salt all over his greasy potatoes.

"Such a simple, banal approach. Where's your sense of adventure, Ezekiel?"

"Merv, your blood pressure," the woman said, trying to take the salt shaker from him. He yanked it away, sprinkling another heaping serving on. Zeke looked at the couple sidelong, watching as Merv shoveled forkfuls of hashbrowns into his mouth and didn't seem to notice there wasn't any salt on them. He was about to comment on how no bad deed goes unpunished when his own meal came, and Lucifer was back to insulting him, and he lost his original train of thought.

**1.**

He opened his eyes with a choked gasp, so shocked that he wasn't feeling any pain that he couldn't get his bearings.

"Ezekiel. Snap out of it. We've got business to attend to."

"And what would that be?" He croaked, and even if he knew he wasn't in a true corporeal body, his throat still felt raw and rusted from disuse.

"I'm here to offer you a second chance. Another chance to be human."

Zeke didn't have to ask if there was a price: he knew. But, strangely enough, Lucifer didn't tell him, or torture him with the choice as he could have.

And that's how he knew in his gut that the offer was genuine—why he accepted it.

**Five Times Max Thought Something Was Fishy With Stone** (2007-05-15)

5.

One night when he walked into the hotel and he was... talking. At least she thought he was. Kind of sounded annoyed, like he wanted the person to go away.

But there wasn't anyone there. At least not that Max could see.

4.

She slammed his hand in her car door once, completely by accident. He didn't even _notice_, and when she checked later, he didn't have a bruise. Kinda fishy.

3.

"Confession's a vital part of any young woman's health," Zeke said, shutting the door on her. She thought she heard the Father on the other side of the screen laugh.

"He put you up to this?" She said, shooting a scowl at the door.

"No, my dear. But I thought I recognized his... rather blunt conversion methods."

She _harrumph_ed, but confessed anyway, just so he'd get off her back. Stone never went to Church that she saw, so why was he so damn persistent about the repenting?

2.

This other time, he was walking up to his room, and was in the elevator so fast she barely saw him, but she _thought_ she saw someone else. Someone shorter than Stone, but... blurry around the edges. She went up to her room and smoked some pot just so she'd have something to blame it on.

1.

"Think he'd be _happy_," he confided in Max, guzzling another beer. "But, no, he's just as pissy as ever. You can't please some peop—some... guys."

"Wait." Max's tequila-hazed sense took a minute to process this. "You like guys?"

"No." He looked despondent. "Just the devil I know."


End file.
